Abu Dhabi: An Abu Dhabi traffic department official is facing charges of embezzling close to Dh700,000 from the money collected to renew vehicle registrations.
The vehicles licensing section employee, identified as N.B., allegedly obtained money by deliberately mixing up the classification of vehicles during the registration renewal process and pocketing the difference from the money remitted by the owners of the vehicles, the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance heard on Monday.
The defendant allegedly charged owners of large vehicles like trailers the set fee of Dh1,000 but recorded the transaction in the system as the renewal of a smaller vehicle. The cost of the annual renewal of a small vehicle being only Dh100, the accused allegedly kept the difference for himself.
The court heard that the defendant diverted Dh699,000 from the accounts in this manner.
R.A., a customer who wished to renew the registration of his trailer, reported the case to the Abu Dhabi Police. He said he had paid Dh 1,000 to renew a trailer but noticed that the online record showed he had paid only Dh 100.
A source at the traffic department confirmed that the Emirati official was working at one of the counters at the vehicles licensing section in Musaffah.
In custody
"The incident came to the notice of the authorities around one-and-a-half months ago, after which the accused was held in custody," he said.
During the hearing, the defendant denied the charges against him. The presiding judge and head of the Abu Dhabi criminal court, Chief Justice Saeed Abdul Bashir, however asked him to reconsider his statement before the next hearing.
